Healthcare is Partnership | El Acceso al Cuidado da la Salud se Fortalece a Través de la Associación
Spring is here, and this month, you'll read about our growing partnerships with Healdsburg Hospital and SRJC, and meet our new board member Rachel Glitz.
Dear Friends,
I recently returned from a trip with my family to the San Diego Zoo. We had the opportunity to learn about various animal habitats and the variety of animals that cohabitate and have symbiotic relationships that increase their chance of survival and quality of life.
Much like the oxpeckers and the zebras, working together to stay healthy, our own healthcare ecosystem relies on partnerships that are mutually beneficial. Many people have asked if the Healthcare Foundation partners with local agencies and healthcare providers. My answer is yes, and that these partnerships are vital to the Foundation’s works and the community’s benefit.
Whether it is through our newly formed Northern Sonoma County Healthcare Coalition, which brings together six northern Sonoma County organizations to work toward sustainability and shared best practices; or through our ECO Group work with seniors in Cloverdale that highlights the partnership between senior services, healthcare providers and local social services, the Foundation prioritizes and values partnership above all else.
Organizational partnership fosters creativity, innovation, credibility, trust and sustainability. Furthermore, partnerships allow for strong alignment among actors in our system of care, increasing collective impact.
In this month’s newsletter, you will read about our growing partnership with Healdsburg Hospital and Santa Rosa Junior College. I am also excited for you all to meet new Board member Rachel Glitz, who is a dynamic local leader in the healthcare space.
The Healthcare Foundation is proud to be the convener and initiator of many important partnerships. We believe that together we can accomplish more than we ever could alone. Our partnerships include our local hospitals, local grassroots and nonprofit organizations, the community we serve, national and local funders, and all of you. We cannot move the dial on healthcare and mental healthcare access alone, nor would we want to. Taking a cue from nature, we all must work symbiotically to stay healthy.
Sincerely,
Amy Ramirez
Executive Director
Partner Spotlight: Providence
A conversation with Michelle Oxford, Chief Administrative Officer, Healdsburg and Petaluma Valley Hospital, Providence
The Healthcare Foundation’s partnership with Providence runs deep. Providence has long supported the Healthcare Foundation’s mission as well as helped to fund specific efforts like the 2021 Community Response Teams initiative. Providence’s Montserrat Archila serves on the Healthcare Foundation’s Board of Directors, and our executive director, Amy Ramirez, came to the organization from Providence as well.
Most recently, through its generous support of the Healthcare Foundation’s Community Wellness Center (CWC) initiative, Providence has played a crucial role in supporting the development of multicultural community wellness centers in northern Sonoma County by funding facilitated neighborhood convenings to design inclusive, intergenerational spaces promoting health and well-being.
These efforts, which began in Cloverdale and Windsor and (with support once more from Providence) expanded in 2024 to Healdsburg, involved collaboration with local organizations such as La Familia Sana, Nuestra Comunidad, Alexander Valley Healthcare, Alliance Medical Center, and Corazón Healdsburg to ensure the collective envisioning of the CWCs reflected the unique characteristics and needs of each community.
Read Michelle’s Full Article (3 min read)
Grantee Spotlight: Santa Rosa Junior College
Finding Resources and Community through the HOPE Program at SRJC
The Health Occupation Preparation Education (HOPE) Program at Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) advances the success of underrepresented and first-generation students in healthcare careers. It plays a crucial role in building a diverse, competent healthcare workforce, benefiting the broader community.
HOPE’s transformational impact attracts strong support from the Healthcare Foundation. As part of its focus on healthcare workforce pipelines, the Foundation, with donor support, funds scholarships that HOPE provides to qualifying students. These stipends help cover unanticipated costs, emergency expenses, workforce development workshops, and more.
HOPE’s Program Coordinator, Arley Rodas Lara, stepped into the role previously held by Healthcare Foundation Board member Daisy Cardenas, who first joined HOPE as a Student Success Specialist in 2019.
“Daisy is still very much involved,” says Arley. “We give her updates on how the program is going. It’s because of Daisy’s hard work and dedication that the program is still alive and able to continue.”
Arley leads a small, dedicated team of two Student Success Specialists. Due to funding limitations, only Arley’s position is full-time, while her colleagues work part-time. Together, they provide one-on-one support to 150 SRJC human sciences students in HOPE, though approximately 330 remain on a waiting list. “Capacity,” confirms Arley, “is the biggest challenge we face.”
“Because our program is very high-touch,” she explains. “We have case management, and we make sure each student is getting the exact support they need. Another issue is also funding-related: We offer scholarships for our students and we want to make sure we are able to offer it to every student who is eligible.”
A Sonoma County native and the daughter of parents from Mexico, Arley is herself a first-generation college graduate who understands the challenges these students face. She transferred from SRJC to UC Santa Cruz in 2019, earning a double degree in Psychology and Latin American / Latino Studies.
“HOPE is more than a program, it’s a lifeline for students who feel lost in the system.”
Arley Rodas Lara
“It was during my undergraduate journey at UCSC that I got into the student services side of education,” she says. “I focused a lot of my research on first-generation students in STEM and health sciences. I wanted to understand the struggle that a lot of us face and find ways to make the journey easier for the students who come after me.”
Her own journey, though successful, was not easy. “I unfortunately was one of those students who didn’t have the usual support systems. I didn’t have any mentors—my parents worked very hard to support me but never went to college or earned any degrees—so it was me paving the path for my younger sister.”
Now, she continues paving that path for others as HOPE Program Coordinator, a role she calls “very close to my heart.”
“HOPE is more than a program, it’s a lifeline for students who feel lost in the system. I have the privilege of being able to guide students through these challenges in higher education. I want to hand off all of my experience, my knowledge and skills and tips, to students who come into this program.”
That spirit of passing on knowledge is integral to HOPE’s culture. HOPE students often become tutors, helping peers in prerequisite health sciences classes. Others develop leadership skills to support fellow students.
A case in point is Genesis Schloss, a first-generation college student and young mother who joined HOPE in 2020. Now in her first semester of nursing school at SRJC, she credits HOPE staff with encouraging her to take on leadership roles.
Read More about Genesis (2.5 min read)
HEALTHCARE HERO
Did you know?
- Since 2018, Healthcare Heroes have contributed $975,000 in sustainable unrestricted funding.
- With the support of community investors like you, we’re advancing health equity across our region, including through grants to the SRJC HOPE program.
- As a Healthcare Hero, your support is gratefully, prominently recognized on our website and in regular communications, including our annual report.
- Your Healthcare Hero gift can be fulfilled monthly, quarterly or annually at an amount that is meaningful to you.
- Become a Healthcare Hero today and join us on May 3rd from 12 to 3pm at Bacchus Landing for our inaugural Health Hero celebration!
Meet Rachel Glitz, Healthcare Foundation Board Member
Rachel Glitz joined the Healthcare Foundation’s Board of Directors in January, one of five new members to start their Board service with the new year. That same month, Rachel also began a new position as Executive Director of Cancer Support Sonoma, which provides integrative, complementary therapies on a sliding scale to individuals facing a cancer diagnosis.
As a glance at her Board bio makes clear, Rachel comes to the Healthcare Foundation with a wealth of experience in healthcare and nonprofit law, public policy, and fundraising. Her interest in healthcare precedes even her early work in D.C. with the Senate Finance Committee (which has a Health Care subcommittee) and her work at EMILY’s List, which provides financial support and strategic advice to Democratic women who are running for elective office and whose policy position is pro-choice.
“Healthcare policy is a long-standing interest of mine,” she confirms. “I took a course in college on healthcare systems, and [in law school] I took healthcare law classes.”
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